[mythtv-users] New system hardware suggestions

[Kari Salmela]

Brad Templeton wrote:

>Unless you plan to use xvmc -- in which case you can do HDTV fine on
>your old AMD 2400 system -- there is very little "performance" to be had
>from your video card.   Higher bandwidth to the card (ie PCI-e) always
>helps, but other than that you won't be use any of the graphics chip's
>fancy features, just xvideo.    So get the cheapest, slowest, lowest
>heat card you can get.    Since the AGP memory bandwidth is readily
>sufficient for HDTV, you may consider going to older gen cards and
>motherboards (except your core duo probably will only come with pci-e)
>
>  
>
I found one motherboard which supports Core 2 Duo AND has a AGP and PATA
interfaces (Asrock 775Dual-VSTA) -   I could recycle the old Nvidia
FX5200 and my WD PATA drive to new system. Would just need to buy
motherboard, cpu, ddr 2 memory if current ddr modules do not work, case
and a new (more quiet) power supply. Hmm.. If I change to PCI-E, I guess
I will loose coloured OSD with XvMC, since there are no 5xxx series
cards with pci-e and the hack only works with 5 series and older afaik.
Sounds like a plan.

>The most common card people used for HDTV in the dawn was the Geforce 5200,
>a very cheap card.  It does HD just fine.  Getting more may just be wasting
>money, and generating heat.  (The slower cards can often run with just a
>heatsink, not a fan, which is also nice.)
>
>In some ways I wonder if the ideal system isn't something like a super low
>power Geode and xvmc, at least in terms of power consumption (which maps to
>both cost and noise.  Remember, the electricity is the most expensive part
>of any high-end system.)
>  
>
.. and that price is going up, while electronics stuff is getting
cheaper and cheaper ;-)

--Kari